How can the EU guarantee access to affordable housing across the bloc?
The European Commissioner for Energy and Housing, Dan Jørgensen, has called for more investment and 'less red tape.'
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/03/27/how-can-the-eu-guarantee-access-to-affordable-housing-across-the-bloc
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The European Commissioner for Energy and Housing, Dan Jørgensen, has called for more investment and 'less red tape.'
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/03/27/how-can-the-eu-guarantee-access-to-affordable-housing-across-the-bloc
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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NewsTranscript
00:00The European Commission and Parliament are trying to tackle the housing crisis across
00:05the EU.
00:06The situation is critical.
00:08Rising property prices combined with a shortage of available housing has made access to affordable
00:14housing for many incredibly difficult.
00:17Between 2010 and 2023, rents across the bloc rose by an average of 22% and property prices
00:25by almost 50%.
00:27The EU is particularly interested in the impact of short-term rentals, which account
00:32for almost a quarter of tourist rentals.
00:35We are certainly looking at the role of short-term rentals.
00:39On one hand, it's a great possibility for people to go see each other's countries, for
00:44people to have an income to rent out a room or a home for a limited time.
00:49On the other hand, it does lead to huge problems in some cities, where people are forced out
00:55more or less of their homes so that they become a business machine, so to speak, instead
01:00of being a normal home.
01:02Measures on the table include the use of European funding for the construction of social housing,
01:07as well as the creation of a pan-European recruitment platform to tackle the shortage
01:12of construction workers.
01:14The Parliament recently set up a special committee on the EU housing crisis, which is expected
01:20to make recommendations to the Commission within a year.
01:23The current chairwoman insists that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to guarantee
01:28access to affordable housing in the EU.
01:31There can be areas where the problem is more on the demand side, other areas where it's
01:36more on the supply side, the type of supply varies.
01:40There are places where new construction is unthinkable and you really need to work on
01:45existing infrastructure, retrofitting, renovation.
01:50There are areas where you could actually alleviate the problem by constructing.
01:56So I wouldn't have one-size-fits-all recipes.
02:01The average age at which the majority of Europeans move out of their parents' home increased
02:06from 26 to 28, but housing is not directly controlled by the EU, meaning there is limited
02:12room to manoeuvre.